Augusta County continues SRO hiring process, awarded SRO grant

Published: Aug. 15, 2022 at 2:32 PM EDT

VERONA, Va. (WHSV) - In June, the Augusta County Board of Supervisors decided to fund 12 additional school resource officer (SRO) positions, allowing every school to have an officer.

School started last week, and the district is working with their original SROs.

Augusta County Administrator Tim Fitzgerald said the hiring process is still in progress. Fitzgerald said they have about 20 applicants now, and four are already certified.

“We will have candidates that are hired that are not certified, so they will have to go to the Criminal Justice Academy more than likely starting in January, along with specialized training for SROs to make sure they have everything they need,” said Fitzgerald.

The county also received a grant worth $778,583.00 from the commonwealth to assistant in the hiring, training and deploying of the officers.

“We’re very excited about getting that funding because it does help us in providing funding for those salaries, at least for the four years that they’re here. It provides us an opportunity to plan for the fifth year and how we’re going to continue to fund them going forward,” he said.

On June 17, 2022, Governor Glenn Youngkin announced more than $37.5M in Criminal Justice Grant Funding, including funding for 86 SRO positions and 15 school safety officer (SSO) positions for FY23 in school divisions throughout the commonwealth.

In July of 2022, the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office submitted a proposal and grant application to the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services for this FY23 SRO/SSO Incentive Grant Program. This funding was made available for new SRO or SSO positions on a 4-year grant cycle, with this grant covering the first year of personnel costs for new positions, with follow-on continuing grant opportunities for funding positions over 4 years.

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